Adam Zegouras introduced Jennifer Savini to the Club as today's speaker to present her Classification Talk. Jennifer opened by thanking Rotary for the opportunity to speak today and thanked President Tracy for bringing her to Rotary. She is still in the process of learning what Rotary is and all it has to offer. Today she wanted to provide a background on who she is and how she came to be a lawyer. Progression into law was certainly not a straight line. She was born and raised in Campbellford, she is the third of four children and the only girl. All her brothers are very artistic. They grew up in a large farm house, which is one of the reasons she wanted to live in East Hill where they moved four years ago.

It wasn’t until her mid-twenties that she considered going into law. She comes from a family of teachers, she knew she was never going to be a teacher, call it childhood rebellion. She has great respect for the profession but it was not for her. In high school she enjoyed math and science. She did not know what do with math as her view was either accounting or teaching and neither appealed to her. She remembers a high school teacher saying once that none of the people in that class would be able to do biochemistry. She took that as a challenge and applied to biochemistry to prove him wrong and attended Guelph University. She graduated in 2002 with honours and worked at Environment Canada and then took a position in the private sector. Jennifer met the man who would later become her husband around this time. Roberto was studying graphic design at George Brown in Toronto. They later adopted their first dog. A two-year-old unneutered, untrained, 100 lb Doberman pinscher named Ripper. Certainly their first test at parenting together.

At this point her mom’s influence started to come through, she suggested Jennifer would be a good lawyer – she was good at writing, attention to detail, perhaps argumentative and stubborn. She quit her job and was offered a spot at Queen’s Law and her and Roberto moved to Kingston. Jennifer obtained an articling position at Templeman Menninga in 2008 doing wills and estates in their Belleville office. She completed articling and was hired back with one condition she was put in municipal law. She had very little idea what municipal law was, but decided to go for it. She was called to the bar in 2009. That same year, Roberto and Jennifer were married in Campbellford with a wedding mix of Romanian and Scottish influence. They had goulash as their main dish and were bagpiped down the church isle. She elected to change her name from Gibb to Savini.

In 2010 two profound things happened to her. In March 2010 she tragically lost her oldest brother Paul, it was a very difficult period for her family. She also became pregnant and while pregnant her craving was to relocate and much to Roberto’s reluctance, they bought a place on the Hay Bay peninsula. On September 3, 2010 she gave birth to her son Nicholas Paul Savini in Kingston General. A very life changing event. And in 2012, Jennifer became pregnant again and had that craving to move, this time to Belleville. On May 27, 2013 Evelyn Maria Savini was born at Belleville General.

During all of this she was developing a legal practice in municipal law. She became partner at Templeman Menninga on January 1, 2017. She has appeared before all levels of court in Ontario, she has written submissions to the Supreme Court and has been given the opportunity to teach the Municipal Law course at Queen’s this fall. Why Rotary? Her mom has been a part of Rotary for several years until she moved out of town. She believes Rotary would be a good way to interact with and give back to the community. She wants to start local, but expects as her children get older and she knows Rotary better she wants to be involved at the district and international level. Jennifer thanked everyone for the opportunity to speak and she looks forward to getting to know everyone better. (pictured here with Jennifer is her husband Roberto and her mom)